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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Skip A Starbucks Day!

Weekend Update:

We've now raised $4100! Our family is humbled and blessed by your support of our daughter's journey home. Thank you just doesn't seem to cover it! We still have $3900 left to raise, so I'm leaving the donate button up on the sidebar since donations continue to come in. Thank you again for caring about my daughter.

Our Story:

What do a skipped cup of coffee, a little Chinese orphan girl, and you have in common? I'll get to that in a minute, but first, I want to tell you our story.

We had three biological boys in four years, and then I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. I had a hysterectomy and while I mourned the fact that I couldn't have any more biological children, I was certain our family wasn't finished. My husband wasn't so sure. :) I'd talked about adopting and I always saw us with a little girl from China. He came up with a ton of reasons why now wasn't the right time to adopt. Then, on Mother's Day of 2005, he leaned over to me in church and said, "We have a daughter in China. We need to start the adoption proceedings to bring her home." I adjusted to this unexpected news (we hadn't discussed adoption for months) in about 15 seconds. :)

The next day, we began researching adoption and we picked out her name: Johanna Faith. Johanna means God's Gracious Gift and Faith is what it is taking to bring her home. We signed up with Chinese Children Adoption International agency based out of Colorado. We completed our stateside paperwork and homestudy within a few months, sent off our dossier to China with the understanding that it would be a 6-8 month wait, and eagerly planned to bring our daughter home.

Soon, though, we began to hear rumors that the wait time was extending. Then we heard that the government had cracked down on orphanages who were receiving money from the state but who weren't keeping all of their beds full and the wait slowed to a crawl. Our dreams of having her home for Christmas were dashed. And then our dreams for having her home in time for summer were dashed as well. Before we knew it, another Christmas had passed and we were still waiting. Meanwhile, the Olympics were coming to Beijing, and the word was most adoption processes would stop altogether.

As the wait stretched from 8 months to three years, I struggled with depression. I could hardly bear Christmas, because she wasn't yet there. I shut the door of her bedroom and left it closed because I couldn't bear to walk past it in the hall. It hurt to think about having a child out there whom I couldn't protect. Couldn't love. Couldn't save. Three years became four with no real change. Our homestudy expired. Our immigration petition expired. Three times. Our fingerprints expired. Four times. And China raised the orphanage and court fees by thousands while we waited. Suddenly, the cushion of money we'd raised at the start of this process was almost gone, and China was picking up speed in their child match program.

In September, it will be five years since we officially started our adoption process to bring Johanna home. We expect to receive her picture, information, and permission to travel sometime by the middle of September.

I opened her bedroom door for the first time in 3 1/2 years.

And went a little crazy ordering cute little hand-made hats and headbands on Etsy because I still don't know her size so can't buy her any clothes.

We're so excited to be able to travel soon to bring her home! But we still need to raise $8,000 to ransom her life from the orphanage. And that's where you come in!

The thought behind Skip A Starbucks Day is that if every person who reads this and feels a tug on their heart to be part of Johanna's journey home would give up a personal indulgence (like a cup of coffee) and donate that money toward our adoption instead, we could raise the money needed to bring her home to her forever family.

We know most of you would gladly donate without receiving anything in return, but I thought it would be fun to line up some awesome prizes and do a huge giveaway at the end of the fundraiser. Other bloggers thought it would be fun too.

So here's the deal: donate any amount you choose (we suggest a $5 minimum to mitigate the small percentage Paypal takes from the transaction) and you're automatically entered in the grand prize giveaway on this blog! You can look at the prize groupings below and fill out the entry form to choose which group you'd like to be entered to win. Several winners will each win one item from each group.

You can gain extra entries by publicizing this fundraiser on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and your blog! And don't forget to grab an I Skipped Starbucks button from my sidebar for your blog!

It gets even better! My blogger friends are hosting some AMAZING giveaways for donors on their own blogs. Simply by donating, you are qualified to enter EVERY SINGLE ONE of their giveaways. At the bottom of this post, you'll see the prizes pictured with links to where you can go to enter. There's some awesome stuff there, ranging from Voldemort's wand to Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instrument series (with a signed City of Glass!) to a huge ARC giveaway!

All you need to do to enter any of these giveaways is make a minimum $5 donation (button on the top of my sidebar). If you don't have a Paypal account and would rather send a snail mail entry, please contact me via email. Thank you!!

*The Grand Prize giveaway is open internationally as are some of the blogger's contests below.*

*The Giveaways are open until 11 p.m. central time Wednesday, August 25th*

Ready to choose which group of prizes you want a piece of? Here you go!

A couple in my church waited 13 years to get their daughter, Jo Leigh. They were finally blessed last September, when the wife was 50! What a shock... and a genuine gift. That sweet little girl has changed their lives.

I wish you and your family the best of luck in getting your daughter home as quickly as possible. My husband and I adopted our daughter from Russia and we know that saying there are frustrations in the process is an understatement. We hope the end of your journey is near and that it is successful and joyful.

I don't want anything from any giveaway. Srsly, if I win, I'm not claiming. It's an honor to help, even though I can't help as much as I want.

I may not have been from China, or from an orphanage, but I know adoption is hard, on everyone involved. You amaze me with your strength, love, and dedication. It takes that kind of will of character to keep going after so long.

We all look forward to helping you welcome home your little daughter. Best wishes for the family - the whole family.

I wish you the best of luck with your adoption. I have adopted twice from China, my second as a single parent. I raced to beat the deadline for cutting off single parents and beat it by 4 weeks(LID 4/5/07) -- only to realize I had an incredibly long wait. Which grew even longer.

I ended up switching to SN and adopted my SON (requested a daughter LOL) 2 years ago.

As hard as it is to believe, the pain of waiting these years WILL fade. You will still remember it, but holding your daughter in you WILL soften it.

I hope that your able to raise the money you need this way. If everyone donates who sees this it seems like it would be raised quickly! I can't wait to hear how it all turns out and to see your beautiful daughter once you bring her home (in pictures of course!).

There are so many children languishing in foster care in the US that desperately need homes - some are infants or toddlers. The state will pay virtually all expenses and sometimes even a monthly stipend (often any child over a year old is considered hard top place), so you can put your money toward a college fund or the cost of raising a child. I hope you find the child you want, but I urge you and other readers to consider adopting within the US. Just google your state and you'll find information on how to start.

I came here by way of Shannon's blog, and I'm so glad I did. My cousin adopted a baby from China four years ago and it's been so rewarding watching her progression within a loving family. I hope everyone gives as much as they can and you get to your goal!

Your concern for US orphans is admirable, but your thought process on adoption is ignorant. An adopted child is your child, it doesn't matter where that child comes from.

People are called/led/pulled, however you want to say it for different reasons. I'm sure that CJ would kindly respond to you that her daughter is in China. Maybe, if she adopts again, she will be led to do a domestic adoption. Maybe she won't.

Personally, if I were adopting I would try to do an international one. The way many of those orphans grow up is deplorable at best. Poor nutrition, poor education and a poor future. While I feel that all children should know the love of at least one parent the children in US orphanages at least have a fighting chance to make something of their lives.

Adoption is awesome, please try not to be a burr in the sadle of an amazing event and an amazing time in the life of CJ.

Thanks to Talli Roland for bringing this to my attention. I'm happy to hear that you already have beautiful children and I'm even happier to hear that you know you are not finished! This really pulled at the heartstrings and I loved that you shared this!

I found out two years ago that me and my husband were unable to have children, we will have to adopt which after going through a depression phase we realized that was indeed perfect for us. We plan on adopting a child in a few years time and it would be an honor to help bring little Johanna home.

So far I plan on donating $20 but after speaking with my husband I'm sure it will be more! This is such a fabulous cause!

I hope that the small contribution our family made can help you. I understand the cost of adoption, by the time we were done with them we could have paid our house off 1.5 times.

My wife cried when she read about you opening her door for the first time in that long. She wouldn't buy a bassinet or car seat until papers were signed because she couldn't bear going home to an empty bassinet. You are a strong family, I hope the process moves quickly - Johanna is one lucky little girl. kjovus and family